Her Heart Plucked
by coldgravy
Summary: A possible explanation for how Zoe and Manny wind up as a couple. During a 1 on 1 battle on Zoe Aves's birthday, El Tigre accidentally gives her a lethal injury, and combined with the guilt he had for breaking her heart during "Tigre Cuervo Forever", he finally admits his love for her.


**El Tigre: The Adventures of Manny Rivera is one of my new favorite shows. When I first saw it back in '07, I thought it was absolutely flipping ridiculous, but I really love the characters and the flawless animation. The Flock of Fury is a great set of characters, along with Frida and Puma Loco, and I just wanted to write a MxZ hurt/comfort thing.**

**A/N: I will not go into detail regarding a... certain scene. Not like a sex scene, but it's somewhat gory.**

**If I get the whole "procedure" bit wrong, so be it. Please enjoy my first El Tigre fanfiction :)**

...

Two months. Two solid months.

That was how long it had been since El Tigre shattered Zoe Aves's heart just to get intel from her regarding her Flock of Fury's crime plans. Zoe still remembered this, and it was slowly tearing her apart. She remembered how her eyes were stinging from crying, and how her mascara was smeared all over her face. She loved him, and was not so subtle about it, and when he not only went on a massive property damaging rampage with her that resulted in skull injuries for two punks, two small children having to get sliced out of the stomach of a massive shark, and the destruction of a priceless statue, but also stood up for her when her mother harshly insulted her. As she carried him through the air away from plasma laser fire, she had admitted to him that he was not only her partner-in-crime, but the best (and possibly the only) friend she'd ever had.

And now this. Now she understood how devastated her grandmother, also known as the supervillain Lady Gobbler was when Puma Loco left her for another woman during the middle of their wedding, and why her mother, Carmelita Aves/Voltura was so cold-hearted and venomous whenever the thought of the Rivera family came to her head. But still, she felt that there was still potential for her to be in a romance with Manny. There had to be.

One month later, she was grouped up with her crush, and his best friend/her arch-nemesis, Frida Suarez, who was hell-bent on getting revenge on her for the awful pranks she pulled during their childhood. Manny and Frida were surprisingly lucky, but before the duo could blow her cover, Gobbler had disguised herself as Zoe's alter-ego, Black Cuervo, to avoid Zoe's secret being exposed. So Manny and Frida now were unsure whether Zoe really was Cuervo, but Frida knew it. Manny sort of believed it, but after her apparent death in her own model volcano which had him devastated, he apologized and promised himself that he wouldn't do anything like that to her again.

Zoe was thinking about all of this as she sat through a boring class period of Mexican history in her normal goth appearance. Manny and Frida were seated at the front of the class, dicking around as usual, and Zoe would go from glaring viciously at Frida, to blissfully staring and giggling at Manny, and then with her half-assed stare at the teacher. After the ordeal with Manny forking information out of her, she was unable to look at Manny, whether in his normal appearance or his El Tigre persona, without crying. But she did have something to prevent that, and that was keeping her special necklace with her at all times.

When she and Tigre demolished a Cupid statue, Tigre had unscrewed a bolt which caused the whole thing to topple over and ignite a billboard. As people ran and screamed, Tigre got on his knees and handed Black Cuervo the screw as if he were proposing. She beaded the screw onto a necklace, and she kept it ever since. It became her prized possession. It reminded her of the happy time she spent with Tigre prior to his "betrayal", and it gave her a little hope that one day, things might be like that again, but genuinely.

The bell ringing loudly nearly gave her a heart attack, but it reminded her to continue pushing forwards. Zoe picked up her books and walked out, relieved that there was only one hour left of school for the day. But the passing of time saddened her for a different reason: that this day was her 14th birthday. Usually she was alone on her birthdays: due to her mother and grandmother's "careers", they weren't able to spend a lot of time dedicated to their little girl's birthday, and she had no friends to wish her a happy birthday. Which was why she was so envious of Frida's previous birthday party, because Frida had invited basically everybody that her friends' friends' friends knew, except for her. There was even a billboard that advertised this epic party, but "Except Zoe Aves" was part of the message. Zoe tucked her necklace into her pocket and departed History.

Zoe walked down the halls, passing the clusters of adolescents that were all engaging in fun, pleasant conversation before sitting through 45 minutes of boring facts while heading directly for class. Zoe was usually one of the first people to class because she didn't really spend much time in the halls. Nobody to talk to, not much to do. And it was school, anyways. Sometimes, the food literally was crap. The walls were decayed and cracked, there was no air conditioning, and the whole damn place smelled _terrible_.

As Zoe walked through a large group, one fat kid accidentally bumped into her when he was backing up, and this caused Zoe to stumble forward and crash onto the dirty tile floor, scattering all of her possessions across the floor... including her special necklace. Frida immediately spotted this and began howling with laughter at poor Zoe's expense, and the rest of the students began pointing, laughing and grinning at poor Aves as well. Manny chuckled once, but his eyes widened when he spotted the _necklace_. The necklace he had made for Black Cuervo at the conclusion of their vandalism spree of destruction, grief, chaos and mayhem two months back. How did Zoe get that? Unless...

...Unless she really _was _Black Cuervo. If he and Frida were right after all. Of course, that would leave the question of who the second BC was...

Zoe was visibly embarrassed, and she quickly scooped up her necklace before breaking into a sprint out of the area and heading into the bathroom, barricading herself in one of the filthy stalls. Zoe clenched to her necklace tightly and took a moment to gather herself emotionally before heading off to finish the school week.

…

On her way back to her family hideout, Zoe's mascara began to ran along with the tears. She had been publicly humiliated on her birthday in front of like a thousand kids, and now Manny and Frida likely knew that she was indeed Black Cuervo. Plus, her mother would show no mercy when she found out that somebody had found out that her daughter was part of a notorious supervillain team. She didn't really get any presents on her birthdays, but even though she and her clan looted over ten thousand dollars a week, it just felt special seeing that wrapped present, and being all excited and eager to open it. But of course, she wouldn't really have a present, and the only present she wanted was El Tigre. She wanted to have a boy like her, not just because of the hormonal changes experienced during teen years, but so she could have somebody to spend additional time with, to tell her she was special, and to do things with her that didn't involve holding people hostage or planting explosive charges on bank vaults.'

Zoe did have a plan, though: at nightfall, she would commit a crime with the intention of summoning El Tigre, and hopefully they could talk. Zoe was upset, but desperate to patch up the emotional wound she received when she overheard Tigre talking to his father at the Miracle City docks. No, on second thought; Zoe wanted a fight. Even if Manny had her at gunpoint or something, she would love it. She just wanted to spend time with him. She almost immediately knew where Manny personally would head: the Mayan Arcade. And that was her target.

…

The sound of laser fire could be heard in the distance, and Manny Rivera instantly knew that it was a member of the Flock of Fury. Which would be preferable, because he actually needed to talk to Zoe, assuming she was the crook-ette.

Manny spun his belt buckle and transformed into his superhero/supervillain persona, El Tigre and dove out of his bedroom window towards the sound of screaming and firing. As Manny leapt from roof to roof, he saw jetpack thruster exhaust with purple in it, which was Black Cuervo's color.

"Time to cage that bird", said El Tigre, popping his neck.

…

"Grr! Where is he?!" Zoe shouted in frustration as she hovered in place, waiting for her adversary to show. To her joy, she saw a figure about her height with whiskers, a tail and razor-sharp plated claws spring across the light of the full moon. Zoe smirked as she swooped in towards Tigre. The moment she saw his face, Zoe began charging her strawberry-scented laser and fired a concentrated blast at Manny.

"Cuervo, wait!" Tigre shouted as he barely evaded the blast, which struck a brick wall behind him with a destructive effect. "I need to talk to you!"

Manny's pleas were unheard or ignored as Zoe swirled around in midair and kicked him in the jaw. As much as he did not want to, El Tigre was going to have to battle Black Cuervo. Manny shot out his claw, attempting to grab hold of the Cuervo, but she dodged the launch and grabbed hold of the chain connecting Manny's mechanical tiger claws to his wrist. Black Cuervo began spinning poor Tigre around as if she was holding a lasso, and let go, hurling him face-first into a large building, crashing through a glass window. El Tigre immediately sprung back up out of the window and lunged for Cuervo, successfully knocking her out of the skies and onto the road, where the battle turned close-quarters. Punches were thrown, kicks in the crotch were used, and lots of other melee attacks were happening as the two teens battled each other in intense 1-on-1 ground combat.

Zoe began priming her wrist-mounted ion laser, but before she could fire the shot, Tigre quickly shot his fist out at the center of the cannon, which exploded as a result of the jammed shot. Shrapnel flew everywhere, and both Manny and Zoe were knocked back by the blast. Both parties took considerable damage from this: El Tigre's tiger ears were torn, his face was scratched, his Tigre belt buckle was dented slightly, and he had a thin layer of ash upon him, while Zoe, who had taken a lot more damage, had the purple tinted visor of her Black Cuervo helmet broken off, exposing her still partially-unidentifiable face and cracking the visor, which was in pieces on the ground in front of her. There was a large gash upon her forehead, which was somewhat alarming for Manny, and her right arm, which the laser cannon had been mounted on, looked broken. Zoe's eyes were bloodshot, and her face was scratched up and dirty, but she still had the same determined look.

"Oye Cuervo", Manny said in as casual and calm a voice as he could despite the hectic combat, "I _really _need to talk to you. Please-"

Manny was cut short with a boot hitting him in the face. As he prepared to retaliate, Zoe picked up her damaged visor to try and use it like a riot shield. Manny threw a punch and a roundhouse Tigre kick at the visor fragments, and aimed his fist and claws at his opponent. At that moment, Manny made the most life-threatening decision ever. Although he rarely used this trick, it seemed to do pretty effectively, so Manny fired the claws of his right hand out in several directions like a shotgun shell. One of these claws hit Cuervo in the _eye_.

Zoe dropped to the ground sideways, shrieking in pain and agony as blood seeped out from under the large, sharp iron claw that had just taken out her right eye. Manny gasped in shock and immediately ran over to help her. Zoe was bawling in pain, and her vision was blurry and distorted, with blood in her left eye, too. "Cuervo!" Manny shouted, a tiny tear rolling down his cheek as he looked at what he had done to a confused young villainess, "I'm so sorry!"

Zoe was delusional and in serious, indescribable agony. Her mind was basically shutting down as she rapidly switched from focusing on Manny, to how bad her birthday had been going, and how much tremendous pain she was in. Manny was crying as well: he was now 99% sure that he had taken out the eye of his classmate and former best friend Zoe Aves, and he felt even more evil, vile and black-hearted than Sartana of the Dead combined with the entire Flock as well as the Chicken-Pot-Pies and about half of the other villain scum of Miracle City. Manny knew he had to get her out fast, and this was stressed by the sound of distant, but approaching, police sirens. Tigre could not chance Zoe being placed under arrest: for one, he had shot her eye out; two, her brood would be enraged and assault the Rivera family, and three, he just felt evil. Usually, he would deal with the bad guys carefully to avoid causing harm to them. He was part-superhero, and not a murderer. Superheroes could never cause major harm to anybody, even their arch-enemies, because if they caused severe harm to another person, regardless of whether they had powers or not, then they would be no better than them. Manny delicately hoisted incapacitated Zoe over his shoulder and fired his claw at the edge of the top of a building. When he hooked onto the rim, Manny retracted the chain, and it swiftly pulled him and Cuervo up out of harm's way. Now he could attempt to tend to the severely wounded Black Cuervo without risk of arrest for Zoe or himself.

Rain was pouring down hard, and traces of Zoe's blood were visible in the puddles around her. Tigre felt a sharp pain in his heart, and compassion of a magnitude that he had never before experienced: first, he completely played Cuervo's heart, then he shoots her in the eye.

"Cuervo", Manny said, kneeling down next to Zoe, "I'm _so _sorry. Look, we need to get you to a hospital, but you're going to have to revert to your real identity for them to be able to do anything."

With her one remaining eye, Zoe looked up at El Tigre and slightly nodded. Zoe used her other arm that wasn't covering her bleeding eye to try and remove her battle-damaged helmet. El Tigre gasped in shock when the helmet dropped to the rainy rooftop, revealing that Black Cuervo really was Zoe Aves. "Zoe?"

Zoe was crying even harder now, because not only had she taken massive damage, but now her secret was out. Her whole family was now in jeopardy, for numerous reasons, and combined with the stinging pain of a metal claw penetrating her eyeball, Zoe was losing the will to live.

Manny was also crying slightly, because he was learning that being a superhero was still endangering to other people. A new issue that came to his mind was that Frida would be infuriated if she found out what he had been doing. Granted, she'd be thrilled to learn that Manny shot her in the eye, but she might end their friendship should she find out that he had just kissed Zoe on the cheek, bringing a tiny, wobbling smile to her face.

Manny carefully lifted Zoe up over his shoulder and began to head to the hospital, jumping from rooftop to rooftop like a Predator.

…

"What happened?" exclaimed a female nurse when she saw the gruesome sight of a now-cycloptic goth being rushed in with a large spike embedded in her eye.

"She got injured during a fight with some supervillain", Manny fibbed, both for his safety and for hers. "She needs immediate medical aid."

There was lots of commotion between the nurses, and Manny followed his incapacitated friend into the ER room. Zoe turned her head slightly to look at Manny, who lightly smiled and held onto her gloved hand. Zoe smiled weakly, knowing that she would have some comfort during the incredibly painful operation that was about to begin any second now.

The fear and anxiety were tearing poor Aves apart, and tears streamed down her left cheek, which was completely blurred with smeared black mascara. The doctors began carefully pulling the claw, which was now covered in dry blood and other fluid, out of Zoe's eye. Zoe shrieked in pain and tightly clenched Manny's hand, which nearly broke. It was practically as painful as giving birth, or at least, from her perspective. The one thing that gave poor little Zoe comfort during this agonizing procedure was that El Tigre did not leave her side at all, and never let go of her hand. He was a bit disturbed by what he was seeing, but it was the least he could do for her. And as he listened to Black Cuervo shriek and wail in pain, he felt that he really should do more for her. Not only for taking out her eye on her birthday, but for breaking her heart two months ago.

…

Zoe came to an hour later, looking through only one eye, as usual. She was woozy from painkillers and anesthetics, but she did remember the excruciating pain as incompetent Mexican doctors basically yanked a massive iron claw out of her skull.

"Zoe", Manny said, coming around to where Zoe could see him, "Are you okay?"

"Manny...", Zoe whimpered, trying to smile, "Thank you... not for shooting me in the _face_, but for standing by me... on my birthday..."

Manny's jaw dropped when he heard "birthday". "You mean it was your _birthday_?"

Zoe nodded. Manny felt another massive tsunami of guilt crash over him, and he immediately rushed up and gave Zoe a romantic, genuine kiss on the lips, which made her giggle and blush, which she had not done in at least nine years. Or at least, outside of her lively Black Cuervo identity.

"Zoe, I'm really sorry. Not just for taking your eye out, but for everything else. Trying to expose your secret at school, getting you to spit out information regarding your family's crime schedules, everything. I guess what I'm asking is, is do you want to start... dating...? Or at least be crime partners again?"

Zoe giggled innocently as she did when Manny had asked the exact same question two months ago. "Yes", Zoe smiled. "But, Manny?"

Manny was eye-to-eye, waiting for her request.

"Please don't tell _**Frida **_about anything. Keep my secret, please."

"After everything I've done to you, that is completely fair and reasonable", Manny sighed. "But Frida and I will still be friends. Perhaps we'll always be friends. But I want to be friends with you, too. Why do you hate Frida so much, anyways?"

"Because... because she just makes me jealous", Zoe replied.

"Well I want to be friends with both of you. Frida may be my best friend, but you can be my girlfriend; if you still don't want to slit my throat, that is."

Zoe sighed and rolled her eye, since she still had disdain for Frida Suarez. "Very well. I love you, El Tigre. How come you never call me?"

"Um, likely because your family would like hunt me down and tear me to shreds", said Manny. "I don't really like how our two families have been at war, but we have the chance to change it. With us."

"You're right", Zoe smiled, weakly lifting her arms as an invitation for a hug, which Manny accepted. As she tightly hugged the guy of her dreams, she felt this mighty pounding in her heart, and it felt like the clouds of misery, depression and bitterness were clearing, and a ray of emotional sunlight was beaming down on her black heart. As unexpected as it was, Zoe's lust for evil, looting, plundering and demolition was fading away, and that's when she realized that she had found what she needed to be happy. Even if it meant wearing an eye patch for several months before getting a glass eye like her grandmother's, and having to get along with FRIDA, Zoe was willing to accept it. She had wound up getting what she'd wanted for her birthday after all: El Tigre.

…

THE END.

**This basically might explain how, according to the creators, Manny and Zoe began dating in high school. I'm not sure if she lost an eye or not, but my alibi is that she'd get a glass eye.**

**If anybody wants me to like continue this or make something involving maybe like Voltura/Pantera or something, then by all means say something.**


End file.
